ICT in Organisations Essay

Introduction In the Graduate School of Education they use many different types of computers for many different things. Some staff will use their computers for typing long documents or letters; others may use them for creating PowerPoint presentations for lectures. In most organisations people will use their computers for similar things, but this isn’t the case in a university. Server Hardware There are a number of servers, and these all do different jobs. Each server is allocated a name, and this is unique over the whole campus. Most of the main file servers are held within the computer centre. This allows them to rectify any problems that may arise if a server fails. All of the main servers work on dual hardware, and are hot swappable. This means that if one processor fails, or if one Random Access Memory slot fails, they are able to replace it, without any down time. The only time the server would go down would be in the case of a Power Supply Unit failing, and this can be fixed in a matter of minutes. In the computer centre all the computers are connected to a UPS and surge protection, in the form of sockets around the centre. The surge protection will stop computer components being damaged due to a spike on the national grid, and the UPS will take over if there is a power cut. The UPS can provide power to the servers in the computer centre for a considerable amount of time. The smaller servers all have a small UPS, and these are configured to shut the server down if the power is off for any longer than 10 minutes. This means that all unsaved files are saved to the hard disk. In the Graduate School of Education there are 4 small servers, and these all do different jobs. There are 2 domain controllers. The primary one is called Charlie and the backup is called Bravo. There are also 2 Macintosh database servers. One is a Mac G3 and the other is a PowerMac. In the main computer centre there are too many servers to mention here, and they are not all related to the Graduate School of Education. The ones they would use are the Student record server and the Library server. Both of these servers run on a telnet server (on port 23), and this allows secure access to them from inside the campus. Domain Controllers All departments in the university have their own domain controllers. Domain controllers are usually rented or let to people by domain name hosting companies. This sometimes has an advantage, if anything goes wrong, their technical support staff will rectify the problem, but in a university there are plenty of qualified people that can work with domain controllers. Because all the domain controllers are kept on campus, if JANET was to go down for some reason, for example, the cable was dug up; all the university domains would still work. So, a clumsy fore person does not check that the area they will be digging in is clear of cables, and they begin work. They hit the fibre optic cable and the university’s Internet connection goes down. They will still be able to go to any of the university domains, for example, http://www.edu.qub.ac.uk or http://www.qub.ac.uk. The university network is fairly self reliant in this way. A domain controller does not have to be a very fast or powerful machine, but it is usually just a normal server. Here is a rough idea of the hardware and price used in the domain controller: Hardware Name Cost Full Description File Server Case à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½125.00 Top of Form Lian Li PC 71 Aluminium Full-TowerBottom of Form Power Supply (High Power Output) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½83.90 Top of Form Antec TruePower 550W PSUBottom of Form Motherboard à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½36.50 Top of Form Asus P4S533-MX (Socket 478) Micro ATX MotherboardBottom of Form UPS à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½314.75 Top of Form APC Smart-UPS 1500 USB/RS-232Bottom of Form RAM 512MB à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½74.00 Top of Form Crucial 512MB DDR PC2700 CAS 2.5Bottom of Form 2 Case Fans à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½12.00 Top of Form Delta 60mm FanBottom of Form CPU Heat Sink and Fan à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½24.50 Top of Form Salman CNPS7000-AlCu Ultra Quiet CPU CoolerBottom of Form 40GB High Speed Hard Disk à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½36.00 Top of Form IBM/Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 40GBBottom of Form Ultrium Backup System à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3,416.79 Hewlett Packard StorageWorks Ultrium 460i Pentium 4 Processor à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½625.00 Top of Form Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology Extreme EditionBottom of Form Heat Sink Compound (High Quality) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3.90 Top of Form Arctic Silver III Thermal Compound (3g)Bottom of Form Total à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4,752.34 Graphics card, monitor and other peripherals can be salvaged from older machines As you can see from the about table, even the simplest server can cost a lot of money, the most expensive part of the server is the Uninterruptible Power Supply, but this would not need to be purchased every time a new server is bought. Database Servers The database servers hold information on different things in the department. The graduate school of education use them for holding information on students and staff, like addresses and telephone numbers. It is much more effective than using paper to hold data. The database servers are Macintosh. They are often seen as expensive, useless machines, but the Macintosh computers are much more powerful than a conventional PC, and their main drawback is that it is difficult to obtain software for them, and no pc software is compatible with them. Networking The university network is quite a big system, and could probably be described as a Wide Area Network, because of its size, although it is really just a very large Local Area Network. Here is a small network diagram showing how the Queens’ Network works. Hopefully from this very simple diagram you can see how big the university really is, and how much it costs for electricity alone every year. Between all the universities in the United Kingdom there is a shared Internet connection. This is a fibre optic system. There is a slight difference between using a fibre and using copper cables. One small fibre can carry up to 1,900 phone calls. This is quite a big difference compared to 30 over one copper cable. This means that the computer users in the University will have very fast Internet access, and between other universities, it can be possible to download a full CD’s worth of data (700MB) in around 10 seconds, and that isn’t with just one user using the network at that time. The speed of JANET is quite hard to measure with complete accuracy, and it is changing in speed every day. Between departments there are also fibre optic cables, as this allows more data to be transferred. Once you get into a department the fibre is brought into a hub, and from the hub to each computer you have a copper cable. This is maybe not the most efficient way, but it is much cheaper than having a fibre optic system the whole way around the department. Looking at the diagram above you will see that the Graduate School of Education is a small part of the university network. Here is a slightly more detailed diagram of the network in this particular section: The network is too large to show in much more detail than shown above. There are roughly 150 computers in this one department alone, and across campus there is anything between 2000-6000 computers connected to the network. They are all connected centrally at the main Queens’ hub, so from anywhere on campus you can find a route to anywhere else. Also, if for some reason the main hub failed, departments would still be able to send files to each other, as long as it did not need to leave the department. Workstations and Software Because the department is large, it may be difficult to find two computers that are the same in hardware specification. Generally they are all normal, domestic computers, although the computer lab has desktop cases instead of ATX, This does not really affect how they work. Data can be shared between all the computers using the public directories, although only staffs have access to these. All computers are connected to the network using 3Com network cards, running on 10 Mega bits / second. This is the only real speed limitation of the network. All workstations have the Microsoft Office Suite which is part of the Microsoft Office Campus Agreement, and FrontPage and Publisher have a separate license for certain departments, as these are not part of the campus agreement as a whole. They also have a copy of Symantec Antivirus, which is updated through the Symantec server, and this provides up to date virus protection. Staff have access to Adobe PageMaker 6.5 and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Software Specification Here is a more detailed look at the different software that the School of Education use. * Microsoft Word – This has many uses. Some staff may use it to type letters and notices; some may use it for typing assignments or taking minutes from a meeting; students may use it for its desktop publishing ability or for typing up coursework/essays. * Microsoft Excel – This is Microsoft’s spreadsheet software and is used in many ways also. Some staff may use it to keep track of students’ progress; some may use it to keep track of outgoing and incoming money; students may use it to create graphs. * Microsoft PowerPoint – This can be used for many things as well. Some lecturers would use it for creating transparencies for lectures, but in this high-tech age it would be more likely for them to use it in conjunction with a digital projector. There are a number of these available to staff during the day. Students could sometimes use it for revision purposes, or for slide shows in class participation exercises. * Microsoft Publisher – This is used for desktop publishing and creating transparencies for lectures. * Microsoft FrontPage – This is Microsoft’s web design software. It is often used by many professional designers, but does not really have a use in the education department. * Microsoft Access – This is Microsoft’s database package, and it is very versatile. It can be used to create macros so that on a click of a button you can enter large amounts of data into a database or delete old records. The macros are easy to program using Microsoft Visual BASIC. * Macromedia Dreamweaver – This is professional web design software used by many top end professionals. It has the capability to write many different programming languages used on web servers. Examples of these are JavaScript and PHP. It also has very good Cascading Style Sheet and Hyper Text Mark-up Language capabilities. * Adobe PageMaker – This is professional desktop publishing software. Many members of staff use it to create professional looking signs and posters, and is often similar to the software used by large businesses to create flyers. Many larger businesses may have their own database software written for them. Many companies like Northbrook Technologies write these programs especially for them. It can cost thousands to get that kind of software written. They often use many different programming languages, usually C++, which is very advanced and can take years to learn. As the university does not have many departments that do exactly the same thing, database software designed just for the university would cost too much, and probably push student fees up quite a considerable amount. Often Microsoft Access is more than enough to fulfil the needs of the departments requiring databases. Other Hardware There are many different hardware devices in the university. The most expensive would probably be the digital cameras and projectors, and these may take some time to replace if they are damaged. The cheaper devices like mice, keyboards and disk drives are easily replaced, and there are many spares in the university. There are many different types of printers available, usually mono colour laser printers and colour ink jets, but there are some colour laser printers available. Printer cartridges are replaced when needed, and are purchased with discount, as they are in very large numbers. Scanners are available in computer rooms for student use.

Analysis of The New Singles essays

Analysis of The New Singles essays The article that will be evaluated in this particular essay is taken from Newsweeks Society and Arts (dating August 14,2000), which is titled as The New Singles and it is written by Carla Power in cooperation with Antonia Francis, in Paris and Stefan Theil, in Berlin. As it can be understood from the title it is about the people in Europe, who prefer living alone. Throughout the article, different lifestyles and different choices of people, who are living alone, are reflected. While doing that, the reasons and the outcomes of living alone are given with some additional information including, statistics and research results. The article shows that there is a certain shift away from family life to solo lifestyle. Day after day more and more people decide to live alone. Reasons are various. Personal ones are; to have an independent and colorful life, to have an own place in which one can find peace and solitude, to escape from a routine family life, social ones are; the revolution in the field of communications, the shift from a stable business culture to a mobile one, increasing rates of working women... Consequently, these reasons direct people to live alone. According to sociologist Jean-Cloude Kaufmann whose ideas take palace in the article, the home-alone phenomenon is irresistible momentum of individualism. And also, a research made by Richard Scace reveals that in the year of 2010, the number of single person households will be more than the number of families and couples who are living together. This may be as a consequence of broken families, relationships that come to an end, and a search for a self determined life. The outcomes of home-alone phenomenon are also discussed in the article. For instance, people who sought freedom or need solitude are more apt to drink alcohol and as it is mentioned in the article over the past five years, these people became the mainsta...

Free Essays on Getting Up Early for School

Getting Up Early In the early 1940’s the Long Branch School District voted to consolidate with the Carthage Independent School District. The Carthage school system has always provided bus tramsportation to the studnets in the rural areas of the county. One problem of this serivce was that the kids who lived a greater distance from the schools had to get up awfully early to catch the bus. Our school bus picked us up at 6:30 a.m. and we did not get to school until 8:00. We some of the first ones on and almost the last ones off the bus arriving back at the house at 4:15 p.m. We had to â€Å"ride the route† and that made for a lot of opportunities for us to misbehave. When we got home from school we were always starving. Mother usually had something leftover breakfast or dinner for us to eat. In the country, we ate breakfast, dinner and supper. I still have to think when someone invites to dinner. I lived in the country too long.... Free Essays on Getting Up Early for School Free Essays on Getting Up Early for School Getting Up Early In the early 1940’s the Long Branch School District voted to consolidate with the Carthage Independent School District. The Carthage school system has always provided bus tramsportation to the studnets in the rural areas of the county. One problem of this serivce was that the kids who lived a greater distance from the schools had to get up awfully early to catch the bus. Our school bus picked us up at 6:30 a.m. and we did not get to school until 8:00. We some of the first ones on and almost the last ones off the bus arriving back at the house at 4:15 p.m. We had to â€Å"ride the route† and that made for a lot of opportunities for us to misbehave. When we got home from school we were always starving. Mother usually had something leftover breakfast or dinner for us to eat. In the country, we ate breakfast, dinner and supper. I still have to think when someone invites to dinner. I lived in the country too long....

The History of the Brassiere - Mary Phelps Jacob

The History of the Brassiere - Mary Phelps Jacob The first modern brassiere to receive a patent was the one invented in 1913 by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob. Jacob had just purchased a sheer evening gown for one of her social events. At the time, the only acceptable undergarment was a corset stiffened with whaleback bones. Jacob found that the whalebones poked out visibly around the plunging neckline and under the sheer fabric. Two silk handkerchiefs and some pink ribbon later, Jacob had designed an alternative to the corset. The corsets reign was starting to topple. An unhealthy and painful device designed to narrow an adult womens waist to 13, 12, 11 and even 10 inches or less, the invention of the corset is attributed to Catherine de Mà ©dicis, wife of King Henri II of France. She enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendances during the 1550s and started over 350 years of whalebones, steel rods and midriff torture. Jacobs new undergarment complimented the new fashion  trends  introduced at the time and demands from friends and family were high for the new brassiere. On November 3, 1914, a U.S. patent for the Backless Brassiere was issued. Caresse Crosby Brassieres Caresse Crosby was the business name Jacob used for her brassiere production line. However, running a business was not enjoyable to Jacob and she soon sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut for $1,500. Warner (the bra-makers, not the movie-makers) made over fifteen million dollars from the bra patent over the next thirty years. Jacob was the first to patent an undergarment named Brassiere derived from the old French word for upper arm. Her patent was for a device that was lightweight, soft and separated the breasts naturally. History of the Brassiere Here are other points in the history of the brassiere worth mentioning: In 1875, manufacturers George Frost and George Phelps patented the Union Under-Flannel, a no bones, no eyelets and no laces or pulleys under-outfit.In 1893, a woman named Marie Tucek patented the breast supporter. The device included separate pockets for the breasts and straps that went over the shoulder, fastened by hook-and-eye closures.In 1889, corset-maker Herminie Cadolle invented the Well-Being or Bien-à ªtre, a bra-like device sold as a health aid. The corsets support for the breasts squeezed up from below. Cadolle changed breast support to the shoulders down.World War I dealt the corset a fatal blow when the U.S. War Industries Board called on women to stop buying corsets in 1917. It freed up some 28,000 tons of metal!In 1928, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust-sized categories (cup sizes). Bali WonderBra The Bali Brassiere Company was founded by Sam and Sara Stein in 1927 and was originally called the FayeMiss Lingerie Company. The companys best-known product has been the WonderBra, marketed as The One And Only WonderBra. Wonderbra is the trade name for an underwired bra with side padding that is designed to uplift and  add  cleavage. Bali launched the WonderBra in the U.S. in 1994. But the first WonderBra was the WonderBra - Push Up Plunge Bra, invented in 1963 by Canadian designer Louise Poirier. According to Wonderbra USA this unique garment, the forerunner of todays Wonderbra push-up bra had 54 design elements that lifted and supported the bust to create dramatic cleavage. Its precision engineering involved three-part cup construction, precision-angled back and underwire cups, removable pads called cookies, gate back  design for support  and rigid straps.

Distributing and Marketing Music Albums Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Distributing and Marketing Music Albums - Essay Example Distributing and Marketing Music Albums Generally there are a number of ways through which we can distribute our albums. One way would be to use physical distribution agencies such as CD baby. Although we may be forced to incur some costs such as the cost of shipping the CDs, the use of physical distributers is quite effective and it will certainly enable our band to sell higher volumes of albums than any other music album distribution methods. Alternatively we can use the online distributers such as Amazon. The primary advantage of using Amazon and the other online distributers is that it will allow our band to post some editorial reviews alongside albums on sale and the customers will also be able to post their personal comments and reviews. Consequently apart from the fact that online distributers like Amazon may guarantee huge sales because they have large customer bases, this distribution option enables our band to understand their customers perception with regard to the newly launched Music album by analyzing their reviews. We will however have to contend with a few limitations of this option such as the high annual fees that these distributers often charge which can sometimes goes as high as 55% per each album sold. We can also choose to physically distribute our albums by ourselves. This option is undeniably the best in terms of saving costs and increasing profits but we must understand that it is a time consuming p rocess that requires commitment from all the relevant players in the band.

Terry Childs vs. The city of San Francisco Essay

Terry Childs vs. The city of San Francisco - Essay Example The FiberWAN contains important information for the city of San Francisco. Childs in the year 2008 was arrested and charged with four counts of computer felony. The city accused terry of creating passwords that gave him exclusive access to the system. He was also accused of refusing to give some of the city’s official’s passwords for them to be able to access the FiberWAN. In addition, Childs was also charged with installing a system that enabled him to tap into and know what the administrators were saying and doing. He also installed a dial up and digital subscriber line modems that could enable unauthorized access to the system. He also placed a command that in the event that anyone tried to restore the administrative access, the system would automatically erase important configuration data. He was finally charged with downloading the city’s data to a personal storage device (Rainer and Casey 78). During the hearing, child’s lawyer argued that his client’s colleagues did not want him to keep his position in the department. He further argued that his client was not rogue employee, but was hard working since he spent most of his weekends and working holidays working. This was due to the fact that he was the only one who was capable of operating the FiberWAN. Childs was found guilty of withdrawing passwords to the FiberWAN and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Parents Attitudes Toward Learning Through Play in The Foundation Stage Essay

Parents Attitudes Toward Learning Through Play in The Foundation Stage - Essay Example This study aims to investigate parents’ attitudes toward learning through play in the foundation stage. 1.3 Objectives Specific objectives of this research are as follows: 1. To research related literature in order to define play and the types of play used in the foundation stage 2. To establish why play is important for children’s development. 3. To explore parents’ beliefs and attitudes regarding play as a way of learning in the foundation stage using primary research. 4. To identify whether parents provide any play activities at home to support children’s development at the foundation stage 1.4 Rationale of the Study This research aims to explore how parents truly regard play and if they do believe in its benefit to support children’s development especially in the foundation stage. This information would be very helpful for practitioners so that they know how to engage parents’ cooperation and support in schools. It is believed that parent s are important collaborators in their children’s learning since they can provide the resources and experiences to help them learn both at home and in school. In partnership with teachers, parents can help enhance the curriculum in ways that engage children’s interest, so it becomes meaningful and fun for them. Play is one way that makes this possible. Parents are seen as partners in their children’s education, so it is worthwhile to study how they view their role as parents of very young children who constantly engage in play as a form of enjoyment. Becoming aware that play may be used in the educational setting for learning as well as enjoyment may confuse parents as to the role play is given in the foundation...From the research, it can be comprehended that play comes naturally to children. From the time they are infants, the play is an activity that they engage in to learn about their world. As they grow older, they discover more about the world around them through play. They use their senses to explore objects and learn about concepts such as of cause and effects when they manipulate objects. Macintyre asserts that young children learn better in play-like settings. Concepts are retained better when learned in an easy, relaxed and fun atmosphere that does not pressure children to perform in ways that stress them to achieve. Macintyre continues to endorse the value of play in all the developmental areas of children. Play’s rich and varied meanings have resulted in theorists being unable to come up with a single standard definition. Isaacs was one of the first known theorists to define play as the work of the child whereas more recently Bruce regards play as â€Å"the highest form of learning in early childhood†. Moyles comments on how the play is valuable as an excellent learning medium and educators who attempt to define play describe similar features such as enjoyment, spontaneity and active engagement. Still, the diffic ulty of finding a precise and conclusive definition of play persists. Greig contends that this may be due to its ambiguity and variety, as play serves various roles and functions. Another reason for the difficulty in finding one standard definition is that â€Å"the boundaries of play are fluid† and so may cover different activities.